The present invention relates to an absorbent article in the form of a sanitary napkin, a panty liner or an incontinence protector, comprising an elongated body that includes means for permitting the body to expand in a direction essentially transversely to said elongated body, wherein the elongated body is flat and has a liquid-permeable sheet or layer which is intended to face towards the crotch of the wearer in use, a liquid-impermeable sheet which is intended to face towards a garment, such as a pair of panties worn by the user, and an absorbent layer disposed between the liquid-permeable sheet and the liquid-impermeable sheet, wherein said liquid-impermeable sheet is provided at least partially with fastener devices that enable the article to be connected releasably to said garment.
An article of this kind is known from EP-A-0 405 403 which teaches a panty liner that includes a single pleat or fold that extends along the full length of the elongated body, so as to enable the panty liner to expand in a direction transversely to the elongated body and therewith fit garments of different sizes. The pleat or fold, however, extends towards the wearer""s body and can therefore cause discomfort to the wearer. For this reason, the pleated part of the panty liner may have only a small vertical extension, and it is only possible to adapt the known panty liner to a very limited range of garment sizes. Moreover, the known pleat, or fold, has a stiffening effect against bending of the article about transversal axes in the plane of the article, which limits the ability of the known panty liner to adapt to the wearer""s body shape in use.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a discrete panty liner that can be adapted to many different garment sizes but which, nevertheless, can be worn comfortably and which can readily adapt to the body shape of the wearer.
This object has been achieved with an absorbent article of the kind defined in the introductory paragraph and characterised in that said expansion means includes at least one bellows-like pleat that extends only partially along the elongated body and that includes two leg parts disposed in plane parallel with the plane of the article, and an inwardly folded intermediate part that extends between said leg parts and joins said leg parts together. This results in an absorbent article that covers the whole of the garment area that faces towards the urethra and vagina of the wearer, but which is narrow in the region of the article that is placed against the pelvis and the anus of the wearer. Thus, in a known-expanded state the article is adapted to suit string panties but can be expanded to fit panties that have a traditional crotch. The total absorption capacity of the article is the same, regardless of whether it is folded or not. Because the pleat is a bellows-like pleat, the inwardly folded parts of the article will be directed essentially parallel with the plane of the article, meaning that the article has generally planar surfaces and that the stiffening effect afforded by the pleat essentially influences only bending of the article about axes that extend perpendicular to the plane of the article and will not therefore limit its ability to adapt to the body shape of the wearer other than the limitation incurred by the greater thickness of the material in the inwardly folded parts of the article, which, of course, slightly increases the bending resistance. Because the pleat or pleats is layered solely located in the rear part of the article when worn, the pleat/pleats will have no negative affect on the ability of the front part of the article to adapt to the body shape of the wearer.
The article will preferably include a pair of mirror-imaged bellows-like pleats on respective sides of the longitudinal symmetry axis of the article, said pleats having a cross-section in the general shape of a Z and a mirror-imaged Z respectively, wherewith the leg parts of the Z-shaped bellow-like pleats in the pair of pleats, which lie in the same plane, face towards each other. As a result of this configuration of the pleats in the rear part of the article, the article will tend to form a basin-like shape in the front part of the region nearest the beginning of the pleats, when the article is worn. Furthermore, this pleat configuration facilitates symmetric expansion of the rear part of the article. Such symmetrical expansion is important in ensuring that the front part of the article will not lie crookedly in use.
The expansion means will suitably include several pairs of bellows-like pleats. This provides the possibility of extending the panty liner with successive pairs of pleats, so as to fit garments of all particular sizes.
The inwardly folded intermediate parts of the pleats are conveniently releasably joined to the mutually facing leg parts. This can be achieved by applying a binder to the liquid-permeable sheet of the intermediate parts or the leg parts.
The elongated body will conveniently include a first and a second end and a central region therebetween, wherewith the pleats extend to the central region, from said first end towards said second end.
The pleats preferably extend parallel with one another. Alternatively, the pleats may extend in a divergent relationship with one another, therewith imparting different shapes to the rear part of the article.
The aforementioned fastener means will suitably be a binding agent. The binding agent may, in particular, comprise a pressure sensitive hotmelt glue.